Jönköping Major grand-final preview: All the records, milestones, and firsts on the line for BDS and Liquid

^{Image: Ubisoft/Joao Ferreira}

Not only will they fight for the title, trophy, and prize money, both Team Liquid and Team BDS's players have a lot of individual and team accolades on the line.

Here's a look the records that could be broken, and milestones crossed:

Renshiro, Lagonis, and Nesk going for their second title

When looking at Pro League, Six Major, or Six Invitational titles, a total of 72 players have won titles before. If BDS win, four more players will be added to this list, while if Liquid win, it’ll rise by three. 

Out of the 72, only 18 -- exactly one-quarter -- have won multiple titles. This is the list that Nesk, Lagonis, and Renshiro will aim to join after previously winning the Season 7 ESL Pro League Finals, the Mexico Major, and the Pro League Season 2 Finals, respectively:

• 7 - Pengu
• 6 - Goga, Fabian, Joonas
• 5 - Kantoraketti 
• 4 - Canadian
• 2 - ShepparD, JoyStiCk, Scyther, Dan, karzheka, Necrox, nvK, Yung, Falko, KS, SHA77E, Bullet1
• 1 - 54 other players

This would make Nesk and Lagonis the second and third two-time Brazilian champions after nesk’s former teammate and current FaZe Clan player, Bullet1, became the first to achieve this feat last year in Sweden.

Similarly, Renshiro’s ex-teammate, Falko, is the lone Frenchman to have won multiple titles. Coincidentally, Falko’s second title came against nesk during the Season 4 Finals.

Renshiro and Lagonis would have also won their two titles on two different organizations, something only six other players have done:

• 3 - Canadian and Kantoraketti
• 2 - Pengu, Falko, SHA77E, Bullet1

Also, if Liquid were to win they would be the fifth organization to win multiple tournaments:

• 4 -- PENTA
• 3 -- G2 Esports
• 2 -- Continuum & Team Empire
• 1 -- 11 other organizations

BriD the Clutch God

BriD is currently on a career total of 95 clutches. While very unlikely, he could hit 100 in today’s best-of-five. For context, Nesk, one of Siege’s all-time greatest players, is on 52 clutches. Former G2 Esports legend Pengu retired at 56, while DarkZero Esports’ Canadian’s at 55. 

LikEfac is on eight clutches and could end the tournament with 10, which is a milestone in itself if not as impressive as 100. Additionally, short of the worst performance in Major history in this grand-final, he will break 300 kills -- he only needs three more. 

With 34 kills, Renshiro can also hit a total of 3,500 while AsK is two clutches short of 20. 

Region Battles

Concerning just Six Major titles, EU has won three, LATAM has won two, and NA has won one. A Liquid victory could catch them up. 

Factor in SI results and there have been 12 PC Majors. EU has won five, LATAM has won three, and NA has won four. LATAM could catch NA by this metric. 

Finally, considering all tier-one events -- Six Majors, Six Invitationals, and Pro League Finals -- there have been 22 winners. EU is historically the very best region with 13 wins, NA has five, and LATAM has four. Once again, LATAM could tie NA’s all-time record. 

Paluh could earn a new kill record

The most kills at prior Six Majors were as follows:

• Berlin Major -- Cyber at 182
• Charlotte Major -- Panbazou at 175
• Sweden Major -- Cyber at 176
• Mexico Major -- Levy and Alem4o at 158
• Raleigh Major -- JoyStiCK at 143
• Paris Major -- Kantoraketti at 92

Notably, with a single kill worth of an exception in Charlotte, the kill counts are rising every Major. 

Currently, Gryxr is the player with the most number of kills at this Major, but he is now out of the tournament. The remaining 10 players have the following net kill counts:

• Paluh -- 113
• Shaiiko -- 107
• AsK -- 100
• LikEfac -- 99
• Resetz -- 93
• Nesk -- 93
• Elemzje -- 92
• Renshiro -- 72
• BriD -- 69
• Lagonis -- 66

To break the record, Paluh needs 69 kills, while Shaiiko needs 75. The most kills ever achieved in a tier-one game is 65 by MNM Gaming’s Tyrant at the SI 2022 qualifiers. As such, it is very unlikely we see this record broken. But, if anyone will ever break the all-time kill record, it will probably be Paluh or Shaiiko.

Additionally, here are the reigning relevant kill records ahead of this game:

• BO5 all-time -- 65 by Tyrant (MNM Gaming) vs cowana Gaming at SI 22 qualifiers 
• BO5 LAN -- 57 by Cyber (FaZe Clan) vs Ninjas in Pyjamas at the Sweden Major
• Single map -- 27 by Paluh (Team Liquid) vs Team BDS at OGA PIT Minor 2019 & Onigiri (Elevate) vs Rogue at SI 2022

That last figure is particularly relevant, as it was versus BDS that Paluh earned the joint-most kills by a player in any professional map in R6’s seven year history. 

The best fragger of all time vs the second-best

The top two players by kill rate in Siege esports (when those below 100 maps played are filtered out to remove anomalies) are BDS’s Shaiiko on 0.98 kills per round and Liquid’s Paluh on 0.94 kills per round.

The biggest kill differentials in the world are from Paluh, then Nesk, then Shaiiko. The biggest opening differential in the world is nesk, then Paluh, then Shaiiko, and the two highest SiegeGG Ratings in history are held by Paluh and then Shaiiko.

Third by KPR is also w7m’s Kheyze on 0.94 and then Mowwwgli on 0.92. Both of these players reached the semi-finals and is a clear demonstration of how the current meta fits such aggressive players well.

Five maps incoming?

All four Six Majors since the COVID-related international break have ended in 3-2 results. All four also saw the team that win map one lose the whole tournament. 

Out of the four prior winners, FaZe and DarkZero had won their group, while Team oNe and Rogue had finished in second place behind BDS and XSET, respectively. This ongoing Major saw Liquid win their group, but BDS finish behind w7m.

Is home support the key?

If BDS win this grand-final, we will have had four events in a row that featured crowds to have been won by a home team. This would follow Rogue in Berlin, DarkZero in Charlotte, and SSG in Montreal 2020.

R6 speedrun any%

In August, Spoit became the first player to win a Major event in their debut stage. Now, LikEfac could become the second. 

Spoit won his Major 62 days after his debut. If LikEfac lifts the title, he would do so after 76 days, only just missing out on a Major speedrun record. 

Shaiiko to become the sixth-biggest winner in R6 history

By prize money Shaiiko has apparently won a share totalling $342,950, though more than half of that came from the Gamers8 event alone.

If he wins the Six Major, then BDS take home $200,000. Split only amongst the players, this totals $40,000 each which would raise Shaiiko’s total to $382,950. 

This would make Shaiiko the sixth-highest earner by prize money in Siege history. Here are the current top players, according to esportsearnings.com:

1. Canadian - $423,661
2. Geometrics -- $400,100
3. Psycho -- $389,664
4. Kamikaze -- $389,664
5. Julio -- $385,664
6. Pengu -- $373,157

Additionally, here are a few notable extras:

• 9th Beaulo -- $372,185
• 16th Fabian -- $340,115
• 20th JoyStiCK -- $314,565
• 21st nesk -- $312,463
• 26th Paluh -- $285,565

Coaching comeback stories

One year and one month ago, Hugzord finished sixth in Brazil’s Challenger League. 

This was a career low after he had previously competed in the Pro League for Black Dragons, Team oNe, and MIBR. 

With MIBR, he notably finished third at the OGA PIT Minor and was knocked out of SI 2020 by none other than Team BDS. 

After being dropped from his tier two team in January this year, he joined Liquid as a coach in March and now -- less than a year later -- is close to winning a Major.

BDS’s coach meanwhile is Stooflex, a player who took a five year break from the game.

Back during Year 1, Stooflex was a founding member of Team Nitrado, Liven’s roster that would later be known as Millenium and now can be traced to the Rogue banner. He competed at Siege’s first DreamHack event, DH Tours 2016, and in the Pro League in Season 3. 

When Xbox’s Pro League was cancelled, Siege’s much more successful French community moved over from console to PC, leading to vast changes in Millenium. However, Stooflex got left out of the big teams. He attempted to play in the Challenger League during Season 6 and coached Elemzje’s Vitality roster to his first national title, but left the competitive game shortly afterwards.

Fast forward from 2017 to 2022 and he came out of the blue to join BDS in September -- just two months ago -- and now he’s also close to winning a Major title.